by Daniel Yordy
Tools are central to raising our standard of living. They are central to how we accomplish good things in the world. Consider all physical work in the real world. What is accomplished without the use of tools? Almost nothing.
Yet tools are amazingly absent from the modern classroom, both public and private. In most of the work a student does in school, the tools he or she uses consist almost entirely of a pen or pencil. Yes, there are more tools used in art and drafting or shop and homemaking classes, but these are becoming more and more peripheral.
Project-led learning puts the use of tools back into the center of a child’s education where they belong. There is a critical connection between the brain, the eye, the hand, the tool, and the accomplishment of work that cannot be absent if we hope to raise children who know how to think for themselves and how to prosper in their lives in this world.
Almost every project requires the use of tools to accomplish work in some way. Tools, of course, are more than hammers and wrenches, “tools” also include every interconnecting device that allows us to accomplish work. And so, in riding horses, a child must learn to understand and use saddles, bridles and harness; in backpacking, the student must learn backpacks and hiking boots and implements to start a fire. These are all “tools” that serve between the mind and accomplishments.
But tools and tool safety play an even larger role in technological and vocational projects. Whether it is building robots or your own computer, fixing small engines, metalsmithing or sewing, tools warrant their own study and mastery.
But here is a dilemma we face in educating our children. The mastery of tools requires learning from a master. That is partly why tools have disappeared from modern education; there are no masters to teach their use or time allowed to become skilled. For example, as a builder, I taught myself to mud drywall, using the tools of mudding. But even though I was good with other tools, my use of a mudding knife was poor. Then I had the opportunity to watch masters at work with mudding tools. It did not take me long to see what I was doing wrong, and I soon became better.
Connecting our children with masters in the use of tools is worth the effort. Project-led learning is how we do that. Does your child know how to use a garden rake? Can he hammer a nail in straight without hitting his thumb? Does she know how to turn a screwdriver? Or how to use a knife to fillet a fish? Or how to use a guitar to bring people joy? These may seem like simple and inconsequential things, but they are not. They are hard to do without training and watching a master, and they are central to the development of a thinking mind.
More than that, we live in a world where everything is done for us by computerized machines and by workers in other countries. Our children grow up without needing to make anything for survival. This is not a good idea for many reasons beyond the scope of this article.
I worked for a season with the disciplinary kids in a low-income school district. There is no question to me that these young people got into trouble because they were frustrated with a meaningless life beyond their ability to cope and with no end in sight. A huge part of that lack of fulfillment in their hearts was the absence of using tools to make things or fix things to benefit and bless other people. I have watched the lights come on in a boy’s heart when, for the first time, a hammer was put into his hand and he was told to build something.
On the other hand, I lived in a context for many years where children were taught the use of tools in every area of life from an early age, and they used those tools for the needs of everyday life. What a difference that made for them as they moved into the adult work world. They knew how to make things with their hands. And even if they moved into more business-world jobs, those practical skills still gave them an edge.
I am looking for radical changes in how our children learn. Enabling them to master the use of tools to repair or to build or to grow is a core part of that change. Project-led learning places the use of tools back where it belongs in between the mind of the child and blessing other people.
Daniel Yordy has worked with teenagers for over thirty years, both on the job, doing a wide range of activities with young men and women from construction to woodworking to gardening to milking cows, and in school, public, private, and home school. While obtaining his Masters Degree, he pondered the difference between the dictates of “modern education” and the practical reality he already knew produced far superior learning results than anything contrived in the modern (pretend) classroom. The result is Project-Led Learning, a weaving of the objectives of education into the actions of real-life, personal projects that contribute to a young person’s life and family.
Out of the philosophy of Project-Led Learning, Mr. Yordy has devised a series of Project Guides in ten different categories of learning. You can find out more about these exciting Guides at http://www.yguideacademy.com/ProjectLedLearning.html
Tools are central to raising our standard of living. They are central to how we accomplish good things in the world. Consider all physical work in the real world. What is accomplished without the use of tools? Almost nothing.
Yet tools are amazingly absent from the modern classroom, both public and private. In most of the work a student does in school, the tools he or she uses consist almost entirely of a pen or pencil. Yes, there are more tools used in art and drafting or shop and homemaking classes, but these are becoming more and more peripheral.
Project-led learning puts the use of tools back into the center of a child’s education where they belong. There is a critical connection between the brain, the eye, the hand, the tool, and the accomplishment of work that cannot be absent if we hope to raise children who know how to think for themselves and how to prosper in their lives in this world.
Almost every project requires the use of tools to accomplish work in some way. Tools, of course, are more than hammers and wrenches, “tools” also include every interconnecting device that allows us to accomplish work. And so, in riding horses, a child must learn to understand and use saddles, bridles and harness; in backpacking, the student must learn backpacks and hiking boots and implements to start a fire. These are all “tools” that serve between the mind and accomplishments.
But tools and tool safety play an even larger role in technological and vocational projects. Whether it is building robots or your own computer, fixing small engines, metalsmithing or sewing, tools warrant their own study and mastery.
But here is a dilemma we face in educating our children. The mastery of tools requires learning from a master. That is partly why tools have disappeared from modern education; there are no masters to teach their use or time allowed to become skilled. For example, as a builder, I taught myself to mud drywall, using the tools of mudding. But even though I was good with other tools, my use of a mudding knife was poor. Then I had the opportunity to watch masters at work with mudding tools. It did not take me long to see what I was doing wrong, and I soon became better.
Connecting our children with masters in the use of tools is worth the effort. Project-led learning is how we do that. Does your child know how to use a garden rake? Can he hammer a nail in straight without hitting his thumb? Does she know how to turn a screwdriver? Or how to use a knife to fillet a fish? Or how to use a guitar to bring people joy? These may seem like simple and inconsequential things, but they are not. They are hard to do without training and watching a master, and they are central to the development of a thinking mind.
More than that, we live in a world where everything is done for us by computerized machines and by workers in other countries. Our children grow up without needing to make anything for survival. This is not a good idea for many reasons beyond the scope of this article.
I worked for a season with the disciplinary kids in a low-income school district. There is no question to me that these young people got into trouble because they were frustrated with a meaningless life beyond their ability to cope and with no end in sight. A huge part of that lack of fulfillment in their hearts was the absence of using tools to make things or fix things to benefit and bless other people. I have watched the lights come on in a boy’s heart when, for the first time, a hammer was put into his hand and he was told to build something.
On the other hand, I lived in a context for many years where children were taught the use of tools in every area of life from an early age, and they used those tools for the needs of everyday life. What a difference that made for them as they moved into the adult work world. They knew how to make things with their hands. And even if they moved into more business-world jobs, those practical skills still gave them an edge.
I am looking for radical changes in how our children learn. Enabling them to master the use of tools to repair or to build or to grow is a core part of that change. Project-led learning places the use of tools back where it belongs in between the mind of the child and blessing other people.
Daniel Yordy has worked with teenagers for over thirty years, both on the job, doing a wide range of activities with young men and women from construction to woodworking to gardening to milking cows, and in school, public, private, and home school. While obtaining his Masters Degree, he pondered the difference between the dictates of “modern education” and the practical reality he already knew produced far superior learning results than anything contrived in the modern (pretend) classroom. The result is Project-Led Learning, a weaving of the objectives of education into the actions of real-life, personal projects that contribute to a young person’s life and family.
Out of the philosophy of Project-Led Learning, Mr. Yordy has devised a series of Project Guides in ten different categories of learning. You can find out more about these exciting Guides at http://www.yguideacademy.com/ProjectLedLearning.html
